28 January 2007
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL will this Thursday come under pressure from investors to reveal the impact of selling half its share in the $22 billion (£11 billion) Sakhalin-2 gas project in Russia. Analysts believe the sale could hit Shell’s oil and gas reserves by 1 billion barrels — almost 9% of its proven reserves.
Last month Gazprom, Russia’s state-backed gas group, paid $7.4 billion to take majority control of the Sakhalin project. The sale came after pressure from the Russian government and led Shell to halve its stake to 27.5%.
Shell is understood to have about 11.5 billion barrels of proven reserves under the US Securities and Exchange Commission rules. However, the oil giant prefers to define its reserves in terms of potential resources, which it estimates at some 60 billion barrels.
Shell is expected to announce full-year pre-tax profits of $25 billion — a record for a UK-listed company — up from $23 billion in 2005. But underlying profits for the fourth quarter are likely to have slipped by 3%.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2569437.html